Coca Cola announces energy reductions and zero waste at all UK sites

Drinks giant Coca Cola announced it will be zero waste across all its sites as well as reducing energy and water losses as it marked half a century of operations in south east London.

CCE's operations director for Sidcup, Steve Adams

At the company's vast site in Sidcup on the border of Kent and London Coca Cola's leading figures came together to mark a business success that is also fast becoming a sustainability icon.

Coke, or Coca Cola Enterprises (CCE) as it is officially known, employs about 350 people at the site 61 of which have a combined total of service of 801 years.

CCE's operations director for Sidcup, Steve Adams, addressed CCE staff, community figures and members of the press at the site on Tuesday (September 27) at an event marking its 50th birthday.

He said: "We've been here for 50 years and we've got to make sure we're here for the next 50 years and that means managing our impact on the environment, we must lead change for a sustainable future.

"Since 2007 this site has reduced its energy usage by 20% for every litre of product produced a fantastic achievement in four years, this site has also reduced its water losses by 50% in the last four years."

However, Mr Adams saved the best stat for last as he added: "In 2000 we sent 650 tonnes to landfill in 2010, for the first time ever, we sent zero waste to landfill and will repeat that this year."

CCE's group operations director, Richard Davies, (pictured below) outlined how the company was making business-wide sustainability savings.

He said: "We've focused for many years on how we can reduce our energy and water use at our plants and the amount of waste we send to landfill.

"Here in Great Britain all of our sites will have zero waste by the end of this year and since 2006 we've reduced the energy we use in each of our factories by 14% and the amount of water we use to produce a litre of product by 17%."